Kyoto Visualization System (KVS) is a multi-platform, open-source C++ library for developing scientific visualization applications. KVS provides classes and interfaces for isosurface extraction, streamlines, volume rendering, image processing, and related visualization tasks.

git clone https://github.com/naohisas/KVS.git
cd KVS

KVS is installed into the directory specified by KVS_DIR.

export KVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs
export PATH=$KVS_DIR/bin:$PATH

KVS build options are mainly controlled by kvs.conf and environment variables.

kvs.conf contains feature flags such as KVS_ENABLE_OPENGL and KVS_SUPPORT_QT.

KVS_ENABLE_OPENGL     = 1
KVS_ENABLE_GLU        = 1
KVS_ENABLE_GLEW       = 0
KVS_ENABLE_OPENMP     = 0
KVS_ENABLE_DEPRECATED = 0

KVS_SUPPORT_GLUT      = 1
KVS_SUPPORT_GLFW      = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_FFMPEG    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_OPENCV    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_QT        = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_PYTHON    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_MPI       = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_EGL       = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_OSMESA    = 0

Set a flag to 1 to enable the corresponding feature or support library.

make
make install

nmake
nmake install

The following variables can be passed as environment variables or command-line variables.

KVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 make
KVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 make install

KVS_CPP=clang++ KVS_CC=clang make

On macOS, KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET can be used when a specific deployment target is required.

KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0 make
KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0 make install

If KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET is not specified, KVS does not add -mmacosx-version-min, allowing the compiler, SDK, and package manager environment to choose the default deployment target.

KVS also supports CMake builds. The CMake build reads kvs.conf and Makefile.def so that it can use settings compatible with the make-based build.

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$KVS_DIR
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build

You can also specify KVS_DIR directly.

cmake -S . -B build -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build

CMake options can be specified with -D.

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs \
  -DKVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 \
  -DKVS_SUPPORT_QT=ON \
  -DKVS_SUPPORT_OPENCV=ON

On macOS:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs \
  -DKVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0

Examples:

KVS_GLFW_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/glfw make

cmake -S . -B build -DKVS_GLFW_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/glfw

KVS supports optional packages through kvs.conf.

For package-specific settings, see the corresponding README files under Source/Support*.

The following files and directories are installed under KVS_DIR.

After installation, kvsmake can be used to create example or application build files.

kvsmake -G
make

For Qt applications:

kvsmake -Q
qmake
make

KVS is released under the BSD 3-Clause License. See LICENSE for details.

KVS/Source/Core/NanoVG uses nanovg and stb.

KVS/Source/Core/FileFormat/XML uses tinyxml.

KVS/Source/SupportMPI/Renderer/ImageCompositor uses 234Compositor.

KVS/Source/SupportFFmpeg/AvCpp uses AvCpp.

When using KVS for your research and publishing the results in papers or other works, please cite this webpage or the following paper as a reference:

Naohisa Sakamoto and Koji Koyamada, KVS: A simple and effective framework for scientific visualization, Journal of Advanced Simulation in Science and Engineering (JASSE), Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 76-95, 2015.

@article{Naohisa Sakamoto2015,
  title={KVS: A simple and effective framework for scientific visualization},
  author={Naohisa Sakamoto and Koji Koyamada},
  journal={Journal of Advanced Simulation in Science and Engineering},
  volume={2},
  number={1},
  pages={76-95},
  year={2015},
  doi={10.15748/jasse.2.76}
}